Monday, January 30, 2006
Desert Oasis Bookstore & owner, Paul
Sunday I met a friend whom I used to work with at Metro Transit in Seattle, about 13:30 at the rock & gem show in town. We had coffee & I had a sandwich for lunch. It has been a little over a year since I saw L & J M when Annie & I had lunch with them at the Black Bear Diner in Bullhead City. It seems that with most RVers when you get together, even after a year or more apart, you tend to pick up your friendship right where you left off when together last. This was the same, plus we had a lot years of working together for the same employer, too, with many friends from there that we shared. It was nice & I hope to see them again sooner than another year.
When I left there I drove to Paul Winer's Desert Oasis Bookstore. It is a large store, with something like 80,000 titles, in an un-likiely place like Quartzsite. When we were here last year this was the number one place we wanted to visit as we knew of the store from a DVD we had purchased about Q. Paul works where it gets very hot, so he dresses accordingly. The picture I took last year, with Paul & Annie, is better but it was a cool day, with rain the night before & still threatening and with a temp in the mid-60s, so Paul was wearing his jacket. This year it was warm, so he is in his regular work clothes. Here is Paul Winer at work:
Paul remembered Annie, probably partially because we had a chance to visit with him when the store was closed & he had time to talk and probably because Annie was a memorable person, in her wheelchair. By the way, his store is not easy for a person in a wheelchair to get around in, so Paul was moving ahead of Annie, moving things off the floor so the chair would fit. Annie commented later that the view from her level of Paul doing all that was fascinating! Paul lost his 8-year old daughter, Celia, to heart disease some years ago, so he knows personally the pain caused by a person dying out of their time. There is a beautiful Memorial Garden in the City park that is well worth your time to visit. Paul's store will be moving to another location in town soon and then will no longer have to close when it rains.
I used the free cell phone time in the afternoon to talk with my friend, R, who also retired from Metro and now lives east of the Cascade Mountains in Manson (where it was snowing) and my brother, L, in Spokane. Shortly before dark I walked up to the rig of D & S B who are instructors at the Life on Wheels conferences that Annie & I attended for four years at the U of Idaho in Moscow, ID. They will be leaving today but I'll see them again in Tucson in a month & a half when I attend the new conference there & they will be instructing.
Then I fixed a TV dinner for my dinner & read, checked the Internet & watched TV until bedtime.
When I left there I drove to Paul Winer's Desert Oasis Bookstore. It is a large store, with something like 80,000 titles, in an un-likiely place like Quartzsite. When we were here last year this was the number one place we wanted to visit as we knew of the store from a DVD we had purchased about Q. Paul works where it gets very hot, so he dresses accordingly. The picture I took last year, with Paul & Annie, is better but it was a cool day, with rain the night before & still threatening and with a temp in the mid-60s, so Paul was wearing his jacket. This year it was warm, so he is in his regular work clothes. Here is Paul Winer at work:
Paul remembered Annie, probably partially because we had a chance to visit with him when the store was closed & he had time to talk and probably because Annie was a memorable person, in her wheelchair. By the way, his store is not easy for a person in a wheelchair to get around in, so Paul was moving ahead of Annie, moving things off the floor so the chair would fit. Annie commented later that the view from her level of Paul doing all that was fascinating! Paul lost his 8-year old daughter, Celia, to heart disease some years ago, so he knows personally the pain caused by a person dying out of their time. There is a beautiful Memorial Garden in the City park that is well worth your time to visit. Paul's store will be moving to another location in town soon and then will no longer have to close when it rains.
I used the free cell phone time in the afternoon to talk with my friend, R, who also retired from Metro and now lives east of the Cascade Mountains in Manson (where it was snowing) and my brother, L, in Spokane. Shortly before dark I walked up to the rig of D & S B who are instructors at the Life on Wheels conferences that Annie & I attended for four years at the U of Idaho in Moscow, ID. They will be leaving today but I'll see them again in Tucson in a month & a half when I attend the new conference there & they will be instructing.
Then I fixed a TV dinner for my dinner & read, checked the Internet & watched TV until bedtime.
Labels: Annie, Friends, Photos, Trips to see things
Comments:
<< Home
That man...he's quite understated isn't he? I suddenly want to go to his store very much, especially since my husband and I LOVE books and have more than we have shelves for.
Is it just me or does that man have a superfluous nipple?
Is it just me or does that man have a superfluous nipple?
I don't think he has an extra nipple, but he does dress in an understated mannor. He says that reduces his laundry costs enough that he can live on the proceeds from a used book store in a market that is very small most of the year. Quartzsite is on I-10 about 18 miles east of the Cal. border.
He does trade books but I think for store credit rather than cash. Last year he told us he had about 80,000 titles. The place is busy now but probably not in Jul-Aug when it is regularly over 110 degrees in Q.
He does trade books but I think for store credit rather than cash. Last year he told us he had about 80,000 titles. The place is busy now but probably not in Jul-Aug when it is regularly over 110 degrees in Q.
My wife told me that I had to check out the photo on Dick and Huggy - I hope this isn't what she wanted me to see. I once had a used bookstore myself. I tried a lot of things to attract business-but this was not one of them. Is this technique attracting business or is this man indipendently wealthy?
Paul Winer is pretty well known in Quartzsite. This has become his trademark look. I don't think there are many others competing with him. He says it reduces his laundry expenses, thus making it easier to live on the income produced by a small bookstore in a small town.
Post a Comment
<< Home
